This past Sunday I read a great interview in the NY Times with Barbara Corcoran, she of Shark Tank fame and the founder of the wildly successful The Corcoran Group real estate company.
The article really resonated with me. She was so positive, so upbeat as she described her built-in desire to run her own thing.
Barbara ruminates on getting her first job at age 11, and having 22 jobs by the time she was 23. Next came The Corcoran Group at age 23.
Business ownership was her calling. For her, the voice…the tap on the shoulder, if you will…was loud and perfectly clear.
Others of us stumbled into business ownership. I know that’s what happened to me in 2002 when I was laid off due to the Internet bubble bursting. I started my own business because no one was hiring Marketing VPs.
For others, your journey to entrepreneurship might have occurred because someone told you to do it or showed you this path that you never felt was possible for you.
However we all arrived at this place in our lives, we are here.
So, by now, you’ve probably discovered business ownership is a strange, unique land full of twists and turns. It spills over with events you’ve never seen before or anticipated, even if you’re just like Barbara Corcoran, called to this life.
And because it’s new, strange and unique…because most of us haven’t “been right here” before…we get bogged down at some point. We get in our own way, slow our own progress down for, oh so many reasons.
Because…
“What if it doesn’t work?”
“What if it’s not perfect?”
“I have no idea what to do now…or next.”
“Can I really do this?”
“I don’t know how to…”
“Where do I go to find clients?”
Or whatever it is that evil, little voice in your head hums incessantly to you.
And the voice doesn’t seem to quiet down. Every year in January I ask you, “What’s your biggest obstacle to achieving your goal this year?”
And every year the #1 answer is exactly the same.
ME.
“I’m the biggest obstacle to my success.”
Of course, you are.
The bigger question is…what can we do about it?
Can you take just one thing…just 1…keeping you from moving forward and tackle it? Step into it? Or push it aside? Change your thinking to the glass is half full?
And if you did change just one thing, how much more successful, profitable and happy would you be?
Go forth and do great things,
Martha Hanlon and Chris Williams
P.S. What is that “one thing?” Drop me a note and share the one thing about yourself holding you back that you wish you could conquer.